You Call Yourself A Butterfly?
by TheEighthDeadlySin
Summary: Someone is playing with time. Unhappy, Koenma sends his team out to investigate. They return with the culprits; culprits from the future, and they have no idea how to send them back. Language. OCs. Pairings? You'll have to read to find out.
1. Time Lapse

"Kuwabara! What the hell are you doing! We've gotta go were late!" I had been standing in his living room for the last five minutes, and was growing impatient. We were supposed to be at the park 20 minutes ago.

"Shut up Urameshi! I was feeding Eikichi!" Kuwabara finally came out of the kitchen and glared at me.

"Who cares about your stupid cat! Now let's go were already going to be at least a half hour late!" I turned and walked out the door, Kuwabara following me.

"Bye Eikichi! I love you!" I rolled my eyes and ignored him, turning down the street towards the city park. I had gotten the call from Koenma a few hours ago, saying he had a mission for us. He told me to bring Kuwabara and meet Botan in the city park at 10pm. It was now teetering on 10:30, and Koenma was going to be mad for sure. He didn't like to wait.

"So what do you think this is about?"

"I have no idea. Things have been quiet for a while, so what could it be?" I looked at Kuwabara when I responded, a slight worry evident in his face as well as mine.

"Why couldn't Botan just pick us up at one of our houses?"

"Koenma said she wanted to meet us alone where no one else could see or hear us. Not like my mom would be home anyways, but I guess she isn't taking any chances with this one." We made it to the gate and entered the deserted park.

"Where is she Urameshi?"

"I don't know. You don't think she left us, do you?" We walked further into the park and squinted, trying to pick the blue haired woman out from the other shadows around us.

"Psst! Over here you two!" We both searched for the location of her voice, but we couldn't pinpoint it. "Over here!" She hissed from our left. We noticed her, almost invisible under a large willow tree. I jogged over to her with Kuwabara at my heels. "Finally! I've been waiting for nearly 30 minutes! What took you two so long?"

"Kuwabara held us up to feed his stupid cat."

"She is not stupid and I didn't take that long! You're the one that showed up fifteen minutes late and didn't tell me what was going on until you got there!" Well he got me there. I just smiled at Botan and hoped she wouldn't clobber me with her oar.

"We don't have time for this right now. Koenma needs to see you and everyone else is already waiting in his office. Let's go." She conjured up a portal as she said this and stood aside so we could step through. She followed behind us as we emerged into the office and sealed it behind her.

"There you are! We've been waiting for you! I don't want to hear any excuses, just listen. We're short on time and I have a lot to tell you." I was surprised by what he said, closing my mouth from the excuse I was about to tell. I looked around at everyone in the room. Kurama was standing patiently near Koenma's desk, and Hiei was leaning against the wall near the window. Their newest recruit, Tarina, was at the side of the desk. Next to her was- wait, what!

"What the hell is she doing here!"

* * *

We stood there in Koenma's office waiting for the brat and the idiot to show up. I sighed heavily and transferred my weight to my other leg. I'm not a very patient person, and they were already late.

"Where the hell are they? You said they'd be here by 10, it's fifteen after."

"I don't know, but I'm sure they'll be here soon." I rolled my eyes at him, I hated Koenma. I was about ready to just leave; I didn't want to be here anyways.

"Whatever, I'm out. I don't wanna be here in the first place." I turned around and tried to dip out, but the short guy stopped me. Not that I'm not short, he's got me by a few inches, but he was still short for a guy. My eyes narrowed and I gave him a warning growl. I watched him grab the hilt of his sword as if it might scare me. Before this could progress further however, a hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"Sephora, please cooperate for now. Remember our promise." I played 'who's got the bigger balls' for a few more seconds, staring him down with a growl, then decided he just wasn't worth my time and ignored him. We waited for several more minutes where I huffed a few more times and began tapping my foot. Finally, a portal opened up and they two stepped through with Botan.

"There you are! We've been waiting for you! I don't want to hear any excuses, just listen. We're short on time and I have a lot to tell you." I watched Yusuke's mouth open and close like a fish out of water as Koenma anticipated his excuses. His eyes scanned the room instead and landed on me.

"What the hell is she doing here!" I smirked at him and his attempts at a glare. I knew he wouldn't be happy to see me, which made me all the happier to see him.

"Miss me Urameshi?" I winked at him and relished in his building anger. I loved getting back, can't you tell?

"What the hell is going on Koenma!"

"If you shut up I can tell you. Now, we've made a deal that in exchange for a reduced sentence, Sephora will aid us on the upcoming mission."

"Are you out of your mind! She tried to kill you! You're just asking for her to try it again!" I smiled to myself as I recollected what brought me here in the first place. That's right, I tried to assassinate Koenma. I'm a 'fighter for hire' so to speak; hey, a girl's gotta make her money somehow. Because of my general reputation for being a tank, I was soon known as the one you called upon to get shit done. Many of the 'jobs' requested of me were highly dangerous and difficult, but I had a rep to live up to and the payouts were always sweet. A few weeks ago I was approached by a demon with a job for me. He was cloaked, as most of them usually were to conceal their identities, so I don't know what he looks like. He asked me to take out Koenma. I had managed to stay under his radar so far, and that would definitely put me on the map. I had originally declined, but then he just HAD to take a stab at my ego. No one challenges my abilities and gets away with it.

All fired up, I accepted. I'm a very proud person and sometimes do very stupid things when challenged. He gave me half and told me I would receive the rest after the job was finished. I spent a week studying and planning. If I didn't do this just right, it'd be a wrap. I found a warlock and paid him to conjure me a portal to Reikai. I snuck my way through an office window on the first floor. It was nighttime and I already knew no one would be in there this late. I had studied the layout of this freaking castle at least a thousand times, so it only took me minutes to find my way to his living quarters. I set myself up in his bedroom behind his bathroom door. Every night at exactly 10pm he treats himself to a bubble bath. I laughed so hard when I found that out. I waited in the shadows of his dark room. Any minute now he would emerge, completely unsuspecting. I would slit his throat so he couldn't scream, and dip before he hit the floor.

The door opened and I lunged. Before I could stop myself, I ran right into a greasy haired boy in a green suit. Shit. He was on to me. Yusuke wasn't the problem, a quick struggle and I was out the door. It was the sword at my neck before I reached the end of the hall. The stupid, ugly sword that ended in a stupid, ugly face of a stupid ugly midget. Did I mention he was stupid and ugly? Next thing I know I'm cuffed and being tossed into the slammer.

"Yes Yusuke I know, and I'm perfectly sane. I'm confident that she won't be taking any attempts at my life."

"What makes you think that! If she gets away with it this time or just plain gets away, that's better than a reduced sentence!"

"Calm down Yusuke, she won't be doing anything. I'm blackmailing her." I growled at my childhood friend and attempted to glare her down. I say attempted because she just ignored me. "You see, I have certain bits of knowledge about her that no one else knows. She wouldn't be too happy if I just accidentally told you guys some of these things."

"You wouldn't dare, I'll kill you."

"You could, but they would still already know your secrets."

"You whore." I hated Tarina. How we were ever friends I don't know. I was young and stupid. Regardless, because of my trust in her as a child I let her know things about me that I never told anyone else; things that could possibly damage my reputation and embarrass the hell out of me. She also knows things that can hurt me. She can deal a lot of damage if she wanted to, that's why I hate her. "I should have killed you when we were young." I mumbled the last part more to myself.

"Right, now that we've all voiced our contempt for each other, I have a mission for all of you. Recently there have been disturbances in the space-time barrier. Momentary time lapses affecting individual people and in a few cases it's spread to entire cities. It started as just a few seconds here and there, but now people are rewinding and reliving several hours of their day. I need you all to find out exactly what's going on. I want to know who is behind this and I want it stopped."

"Just out of curiosity, what happens if we don't stop it?" Yusuke asked.

"If it keeps going the way it is now, soon life spans will shorten dramatically, and then lives will cease to exist altogether. These people are reliving parts of their lives but they're not rewinding their time spent alive. We could end up with a catastrophe on our hands, and possibly the end of life. I don't want to take that chance and find out. Now it's come to my attention that when these time lapses are isolated to a person or group of people, anyone a good enough distance away can actually view it without being affected. I want you all to attempt to view these phenomenons and see if you can't gather any sort of information or clues as to what the hell is going on."

"You mean like how Yusuke just scratched his butt? I've seen him do that plenty of times before." I laughed at my own joke, but stopped when I noticed no one else was laughing with me. "You all need a sense of humor."

"I want you all to investigate in teams of two. Sephora, you'll be teamed with Hiei."

"What! That's no fair why him! Can't I be paired with Yusuke or Kuwabara?"

"No, I'm putting you with Hiei so you can't escape. Hiei, don't kill her we need her for this one." Hiei just 'Hn'ed and looked back out the window at god knows what.

"That's asking a lot of Hiei, Koenma. Even I feel kind of sorry for him, having to put up with her."

"I'll kill you in your sleep Urameshi!"

"You will all split up into different areas and report back to each other daily. Let me know as soon as you find out ANYTHING."

Botan created a portal for all of us to the Ningenkai. As soon as we crossed over into the park she sent us to, Kurama called us all together.

"Alright, I say we try and cover as much ground as possible. Yusuke, Kuwabara; you two head Northeast. Tarina and I will take the Northwest region and Hiei and Sephora can go South. We should all meet back here every night to report in. Midnight sounds like a safe time, no one will be here then. Any questions?"

"Yeah, when can we eat? I'm starving." Yusuke rubbed his stomach to make his point.

"Me too." Kuwabara added. Those idiots, thinking about food when we've got a job to start on.

"Alright, you two can go eat and THEN head Northeast. Don't forget, Midnight every night right here. Good luck." Kurama barely finished his sentence when Hiei took off. I rolled my eyes and followed his lead.


	2. People Watching

I could tell by his irritation that he never expected me to keep up. The whole time I was running right behind him, and I'm pretty sure he purposefully tried to lose me two or three times. I smiled to myself in my own personal victory of pissing someone off.

Right now we were creeping around some shabby little farm town. Leaping between the trees and remaining unseen. We had been on the prowl for a few hours now combing these cities and towns and so far not one damned time lapse.

"This is so boring, and we can only look from these trees."

"Hn."

"I wish we could wander around at least like I'm sure everyone else is, but no we just have to look different."

"…"

"I mean, you could pass as some midget circus freak but I-"

"I suggest you shut the hell up before I remove your ability to speak." He lowered his stupid, ugly sword he had at my neck once again and sheathed it, staring back down into the village. I just stuck my tongue out and made a face to his back before going back to my people watching. I sighed, this REALLY sucked. I don't look anything like a human so I can't go anywhere, and I'm stuck with the guy that has the personality of a turnip. 'I'm beginning to think I had more freedom in jail.'

I decided to take the time to really observe these people. Nothing better to do but make fun of them, right? They were all for the most part pretty ugly, kind of like my partner over there. They all seemed simple minded, like my stupid partner, and they all smelled bad. Then again most humans smell bad in my opinion. These humans smelled like dirt and sweat. My babysitter smelled like the forest, my guess is he spends a lot of time in trees like this. Maybe he's really a tree hugging hippie, who knows. I didn't mind the smell; I actually kind of liked it. I guess everyone has at least one redeeming quality. Hiei's was that he smelled good, and these humans at least seemed to have personalities about them.

We stayed a little longer and bounced around a few more areas, but no time lapses of what we could see. We ended up making our way back to the park that night empty handed. Kurama and Tarina also didn't see anything but Yusuke and Kuwabara said they saw one. Some children were playing hide and seek in a park and all of a sudden the kid went from looking for his friends to counting again. They said it happened so fast if they had blinked they would have missed it. No clues as to what's causing it or who though.

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Tarina, and Kurama all went home for the night, each pair agreeing on a time to meet each other in the morning. I began to wonder where I was going to go for the night when Botan popped out of nowhere in her usual fashion.

"Koenma sent me to get you. He says you'll be staying in the palace where we can keep an eye on you during the mission." Well shit, and here I thought I was finally going to get a taste of freedom. "You're more than welcome to come too Hiei, we have more than enough room." He only gave a 'Hn' and disappeared. Probably to go find his favorite tree to sleep in or something, I sure as hell don't care as long as he doesn't come with us. I passed through the portal Botan created and followed her as she led me upstairs. So I'm not going back to the dungeons? Maybe this won't be TOO bad.

"Here's where you'll be staying for the remainder of the mission. You'll return here every night unless otherwise cleared by Koenma. There's a bathroom off to your right. Don't bother trying to escape, the door can only be opened from the outside. There will also be guards at your door all night until someone comes in the morning to let you out. If you ask me I think this is highly generous of Koenma after what you've done."

"I DIDN'T ask you, so thank you. You can go now." She shot me a dirty look and left. The room was plain, nothing special. It was kind of small, with a single person bed and a desk. There was a dresser in the corner and the door to the right I'm assuming led to my bathroom. I opened the door, again nothing special. It had a toilet, a sink, and a shower. That was all I needed. This was better than the dungeons so I wasn't going to complain.

I took a hot shower, which felt fantastic by the way, and realized I had no other clothing to change into. I walked back into my room to find a pair of night pants and a t-shirt on my bed. "Bonus." I got dressed and went to bed. The next morning I was woken up to pounding on my door.

"What!"

"Get up onna, we're leaving." Jesus Christ can't I get dressed first! I growled and changed my clothing, all the while mumbling curses at Hiei who I'm sure could hear them with his demon ears.

"Okay you can open the door now, I can't open it from the inside." The door opened and there stood Mr. Sunshine. He turned to walk down the hallway and I followed him, eager to leave confinement. Botan conjured us up another portal to the human world and so it began again. Hiei and I spent the day searching the southern areas for any time lapses. We did end up seeing one, a man tripping and falling, then in a blink he was walking towards the same pothole and tripping again. I got a good laugh out of it, but Mr. Personality just rolled his eyes and muttered about baka ningen.

It was nearing time to leave again and we were in our last city of the night. I was tired and bored to tears, ready to go back to my new bed.

"I don't see the point in all this. Even if we see time lapsing, how is it going to help-"

I saw it, it happened again. Only this time the whole city skipped back a good twenty minutes. Good thing we were in the outskirts or we would have been caught in that. I looked back at the clock tower in the middle of this town, and it rolled back from 11:14 to 10:54. That wasn't what shocked me though. What REALLY caught my attention was over all of this, as if we were in some freaky Sci-Fi movie, an image phased over the city. It was as though it was trying to merge with it and enter our time-dimension-whatever. Not just any image, a someone. I looked over to Hiei and by his expression knew he saw what I saw. We nodded to each other and took off back toward the park. We waited for everyone else to get back and tell us what they saw. They had all seen lapses but no one else saw what we saw.

"Hiei, Sephora; did you two see anything?" I was waiting for Kurama to ask that.

"We did. We saw a person who's probably behind it. We've got a face."


End file.
